1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns a gate device which controls passage (e.g., entry, exit, etc.) through a passageway of a person to a room by comparing on-site facial image data with previously taken facial image data. The previously taken facial image data includes the passage (e.g., entry, exit, etc.) permission data indicating whether the person has permission to enter the room. More specifically, this invention concerns a gate control device which can be programmed to determine whether or not a companion of the person having passage permission is also authorized to enter the room.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally speaking, this sort of gate control device requires that data representing the facial image or the information on the I.D. card of each person authorized to enter is recorded before the system is in operation. When a person wishes to enter, an image comparison unit attempts to match his facial image or the information on his I.D. against the previously stored data. If it determines that he is authorized to enter, it grants him access; if it determines that he is not authorized to enter, it denies him access.
When several persons wish to enter a room using this sort of conventional gate control device, however, all but one must wait as the comparison unit can only match the facial data for one individual at a time. This results in significant waiting time when a number of people request passage. Further, when an unauthorized companion whose data is not in the system tries to enter a room at the same time as an authorized person whose data is already on record, the conventional gate control device will not be able to distinguish between the authorized person entering the room with the unauthorized companions from the authorized person entering alone. As a result, everyone must wait when a number of people try to enter at the same time in the first case, and there is a real possibility that an unauthorized person can slip in despite the security system in the second case.
An object of this invention is to provide a gate control device which can control the passage into an otherwise restricted area of unauthorized companions of an authorized person according to a programmed rule whereby the unauthorized companions can be permitted or denied passage when they are accompanying an authorized person.
The invention relates to a gate control device which comprises, data recording means to record facial data representing whether or not a person at the gate may enter the room; facial detecting means to detect, on the basis of the facial data recorded in the data recording means, whether the person trying to enter the room is or is not authorized to do so; and mode setting means to establish whether or not the passage of the unauthorized companions should be permitted when the facial detecting means detects the unauthorized companions at the gate who are with the authorized person.
According to another aspect of this invention, the gate control device has: data recording means to record facial data representing whether or not a person at the gate may enter the room; facial detecting means to detect, on the basis of the facial data recorded in the data recording means, whether the person trying to enter the room is or is not authorized to do so; and passage rejecting means to reject the passage of the authorized person and unauthorized companions when the facial detecting means detects the unauthorized companions at the gate who are with the authorized person.
According to yet another aspect of this invention, the facial detecting means of the gate control device described above detects the companions when it detects the authorized person at the gate by comparing the facial image taken by a camera with the recorded facial data.
With this invention, when the facial data for the person at the gate are compared with the stored data, the facial detection means determines whether that person may enter based on data recorded by the data recording means. If he is authorized, he is permitted to enter; if he is not authorized, he is denied passage. If he is authorized and the facial detection means determines that other individuals, such as companions, are also present at the gate, passage will be permitted or denied according to the rule programmed previously by mode setting means.
Various sorts of rules might be constructed regarding passage, such as xe2x80x9cAllow unauthorized persons passage if accompanied by an authorized personxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cDeny passage to entire group if a single unauthorized person is present.xe2x80x9d
If such rules are established regarding the passage of more than one person, the image data need not be compared for each person at the gate. Since passage can be granted or denied to the group as a whole, there will be no waiting time while the facial detecting means runs through everyone""s data. Furthermore, since a rule is established for group passage, proper security can be maintained even though several people enter at the same time.
Similarly, when the image data for the person at the gate is checked and the facial detecting means determines, based on the data recorded in the data recording means, that there are other individuals present at the gate in addition to the authorized person, the passage rejecting means can refuse to open the gate. This system effectively denies passage to any but authorized persons and reliably prevents anyone from slipping in with an authorized person. It thus insures adequate security regarding the passage of several persons at a time.
The detection device may be configured so as to comprise a means to compare image data gathered by a camera which detects the person at the gate with data recorded by a recording device as well as a means to determine from the image data whether other people are present at the gate. If the result of the comparison is that the person is authorized to enter, and the image data shows that there are other people present, all of the people at the gate will be detected as a group, so this can enable efficient control of the gate.